Smoke Screen

SMOKED
OUT!

fnbworld
bureau/Tarun David

Smoking
has been a favourite pursuit of men and women in
Punjab, a relatively well-of state in India. While
the Muslims share their hukka and chillam with all
and sundry, the Hindus either prefer to keep one
for their personal use or share it with members of
their own caste.

In Punjab,
the folks often coined humorous couplets, two of
which are related to the hukka and chillam or
Hukka hokum khuda da, chilam hukke did hi, Jitthe
hukka dekhiye otthe dayiye pun. When translated to
english, it speaks of God almighty and his order
of not to smoke hukka, and chilam (the
earthernware for burning coal) is said to be Ita's
daughter, therefore,when one sets eyes on a hukka,
one should not hesitate to smoke it. In response
to this couplet, someone stated as Hukka hukm
khuda da, shilam hukke di runn, jitthrhukka
delhiye, otthe dayiye punn. In english it
translates that the hukka is included in the
commandments of God and chilam is itad's wife,
wherever one sets eyes on it, one should break it
into pieces.

The modern
history of marijuana dates back to the 1930's.
People didn't care whether it was heroin, cocaine,
morphine, marijuana or opium, one horror was no
worse than the other. This reflected both the lack
of scientific knowledge and morbid exaggeration
that have characterized much of the discussion of
marijuana since that time. A large and growing
body of scientific information about marijuana has
now been reported in the press.One cannot know now
which of the several uses of Cannabis was
earliest. Since plant uses normally proceed from
the simpler to the more complex, one might presume
that its useful fibers first attracted man's
attention.

Indeed
remains of hemp fibers have been found in the
earliest archaeological sites in the cradles of
Asiatic civilization: evidence of fiber in China
dating from 4000 B.C. and hemp rope and thread
from Turkestan from 3000 B.C.Stone beaters for
pounding hemp fiber and impressions of hemp cord
baked into pottery have been found in ancient
sites in Taiwan. Hemp fabrics have been found in
Turkish sites of the late eighth century B.C., and
there is a questionable specimen of Hemp in an
Egyptian tomb dated between three and four
thousand years ago.

The original home of
Cannabis is thought to be central Asia, but it has
spread around the globe with the exception of
Arctic regions and areas of wet tropical
forests.Cannabis spread at a very early date to
Africa (except for the humid tropics) and was
quickly accepted into native pharmacopoeias. The
Spaniards took it to Mexico and Peru, the French
to Canada, the English to North
America.

It had been
introduced into northern Europe in Viking times.
It was probably the Scythians who took it first to
China.** The Indian Vedas sang of Cannabis as one
of the divine nectars, able to give man anything
from good health and long life to visions of the
gods. The Zend-Avesta of 600 B.C. mentions an
intoxicating resin, and the Assyrians used
Cannabis as an incense as early as the ninth
century B.C. Inscriptions from the Chou dynasty in
China, dated 700-500 B.C., have a negative
connotation that accompanies the ancient character
for Cannabis, Ma, implying its stupefying
properties.

Since this idea
obviously predated writing, the Pen Tsao Ching,
written in A.C. 100 but going back to a legendary
emperor, Shen-Nung, 2000 B.C., may be taken as
evidence that the Chinese knew and probably used
the hallucinogenic properties at very early dates.
It was said that Ma-fen (Hemp fruit) if taken to
excess, will produce hallucinations [literally,
`seeing devils']. If taken over a long term, it
makes one communicate with spirits and lightens
one's body.

A Taoist
priest wrote in the fifth century B.C. that
Cannabis was employed by necromancers, in
combination with Ginseng, to set forward time and
reveal future events. In these early periods, use
of Cannabis as an hallucinogen was undoubtedly
associated with Chinese shamanism. By the time of
European contact 1500 years later, shamanism had
fallen into decline, and the use of the plant for
inebriation seems to have ceased and had been
forgotten. Its value in Chine then was primarily
as a fiber source.

There was,
however, a continuous record of Hemp cultivation
in China from Neolithic times, and it has been
suggested that Cannabis may have originated in
China, not in central Asia. About 500 B.C. the
Greek writer Herodotus described a marvelous bath
of the Scythians, aggressive horsemen who swept
out of the Transcaucasus eastward and westward. He
reported that they make a booth by fixing in the
ground three sticks inclined toward one another,
and stretching around them woolen pelts which they
arrange so as to fit as close as possible. Inside
the booth a dish is placed upon the ground into
which they put a number of red hot stones and then
add some Hemp seed...immediately it smokes and
gives out such a vapor as no Grecian vapor bath
can exceed; the Scythes, delighted, shout for
joy....

Only
recently, archaeologists have excavated frozen
Scythian tombs in central Asia, dated between 500
and 300 B.C., and have found tripods and pelts,
braziers and charcoal with remains of Cannabis
leaves and fruit.It has generally been accepted
that Cannabis originated in central Asia and that
it was the Scythians who spread it westward to
Europe. While the Greeks and Romans may not
generally have taken Cannabis for inebriation,
there are indications that they were aware of the
psychoactive effects of the drug.Democritus
reported that it was occasionally drunk with wine
and myrrh to produce visionary states, and Galen,
about A.D. 200, wrote that it was sometimes
customary to give Hemp to guests to promote
hilarity and enjoyment.

While there
is no direct mention of Hemp in the Bible, several
obscure passages may refer tangentially to the
effects of Cannabis resin or Hashish. It is
perhaps in the Himalayas of India and the Tibetan
plateau that Cannabis preparations assumed their
greatest hallucinogenic importance in religious
contexts.Bhang is a mild preparation: dried leaves
or flowering shoots are pounded with spices into a
paste and consumed as candy -- known as maajun --
or in tea form. Ganja is made from the resin-rich
dried pistillate flowering tops of cultivated
plants which are pressed into a compacted mass and
kept under pressure for several days to induce
chemical changes; most Ganja is smoked, often with
Tobacco. Charas consists of the resin itself, a
brownish mass which is employed generally in
smoking mixtures.

The Tibetans considered
Cannabis sacred. A Mahayana Buddhist tradition
maintains that during the six steps of asceticism
leading to his enlightenment, Buddha lived on one
Hemp seed a day. He is often depicted with Soma
leaves in his begging bowl and the mysterious
god-narcotic Soma has occasionally been identified
with Hemp.In Tantric Buddhism of the Himalayas of
Tibet, Cannabis plays a very significant role in
the meditative ritual used to facilitate deep
meditation and heighten awareness.